Lebanon has expelled at least 70 Syrian officers and soldiers, sending them back to Syria after they entered the country illegally through informal border crossings, according to a Lebanese security official and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based war monitor.
Reports indicate that several high-ranking Syrian officials and individuals connected to the former ruling regime of Bashar al-Assad fled to Lebanon following the regime’s collapse on December 8. The deported military personnel were reportedly apprehended in Lebanon’s northern coastal city of Jbeil during a routine truck inspection by local authorities. They were later returned to Syria through the northern Arida border crossing.
Upon their return, the Syrian officers and soldiers were detained by the country’s new ruling authorities, who have launched a significant security crackdown targeting remnants of the Assad regime.
The crackdown has focused on regions near the porous border with Lebanon, particularly in the Homs and Tartous provinces.
Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi recently disclosed that top Assad adviser Bouthaina Shaaban had legally entered Lebanon but left the country earlier this month.
